Former CIA Director David Petraeus testified on Capitol Hill on Friday that the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was an act of terrorism committed by al Qaeda-linked militants.

That's according to Rep. Peter King (R-NY), who spoke to reporters after the closed hearing, which lasted an hour and 20 minutes.

The account Petraeus gave was different from the description the Obama administration gave on September 14, King said.

Then, the attack was described as "spontaneous," the result of a protest against an anti-Muslim film that got out of control outside the compound.

Petraeus told lawmakers Friday that he had discussed the possibility of it being a terrorist attack in his initial briefing in September, according to King.

"He had told us that this was a terrorist attack and there were terrorists involved from the start," King said. "I told him, my questions, I had a very different recollection of that (earlier account)," he said. "The clear impression we (lawmakers) were given was that the overwhelming amount of evidence was that it arose out of a spontaneous demonstration and it was not a terrorist attack."

The "spontaneous" adjective was "minimized" during Petraeus' testimony Friday, King said.
The cause of that discrepancy is unclear, King said.

Earlier an official said that Petraeus' aim in testifying was to clear up "a lot of misrepresentations of what he told Congress initially."

The former CIA director was expected to tell the congressional committees that he did develop unclassified talking points in the days after the attack but had had no direct involvement in developing the ones used by Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Rice has been under fire for suggesting the attack on the consulate was a spontaneous event spurred by a protest against the anti-Muslim film.

King said the original talking points were much more specific about the involvment of Al Qaeda.

"Final ones just said indications of extremists," King said. "It said indicate even though it was clearly evident to the CIA that there was Al Qaeda involvement."

Questions still remain over the development of the talking points.

“Basically it is still not clear how the final talking points emerged. (Petraeus) said it went through a long process involving many agencies including the Department of Justice, including the State Department and no one knows yet exactly who came up with the final version of the talking points other than to say the original talking points prepared by the CIA were different from the ones that were finally put out,” said King.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee disagreed with King, saying that the talking points did not change.

"The talking points were not changed," Smith said. "The talking points were very basic and straight forward."

Several democrats who were briefed said Petraeus explained the unclassified talking points did not make mention of extremist elements because it was still classified – and could have compromised intelligence sources, CNN's Dana Bash reported.

Smith took part in a separate briefing with the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper.

Clapper read to the group the original three talking points used by Ambassador Rice. There was no mention of al Qaeda or Ansar Al Sharia in those points, according to Smith.

"This has become so partisan and so political," he said.

A senior U.S. official told CNN that the talking points were drafted by the CIA and "reflected what it believed at that point in time." The memo was reviewed "CIA leadership and coordinated in the interagency at a senior level," the official said.

The first draft of the CIA unclassified talking points stated there were indications the attack was linked to al Qaeda, but during the interagency process when the talking points were reviewed, al Qaeda was changed to extremists. The official said the change “was not a political decision.”

"The points were not, as has been insinuated by some, edited to minimize the role of extremists, diminish terrorist affiliations, or play down that this was an attack. There were legitimate intelligence and legal issues to consider, as is almost always the case when explaining classified assessments publicly." the official explained. "First, the information about individuals linked to al-Qaeda was derived from classified sources. Second, when links were so tenuous—as they still are—it makes sense to be cautious before pointing fingers so you don’t set off a chain of circular and self-reinforcing assumptions. Third, it is important to be careful not to prejudice a criminal investigation in its early stages.”

The official said the controversy over the word "terrorist" caught the intelligence community by "surprise."

“Most people understand that saying “extremists” were involved in a direct assault on the mission isn’t shying away from the idea of terrorist involvement," the official said. "People assumed that it was apparent in this context that extremists who attack US facilities and kill Americans are, by definition, terrorists. Because of the various elements involved in the attack, the term extremist was meant to capture the range of participants."

The talking points, the senior U.S. official explained, "were a reflection of the understanding at the time that could be provided at an unclassified level. They were preliminary and were never meant to be the final word on the issue."

On who authorized the final version of the talking points, a US intelligence official said, "We're reviewing the coordination trail."

soundoff(834 Responses)

Our children's first steps, or the first home after you
were married and so on. Keep this plant away from pets and
small children, as it is toxic if eaten. It contains some robust
pre-filter that makes purifying extra efficient.

Why everybody so wants to see the link to Al Qaeda when there is none??? You make the film that insults the whole second largest and the first fastest growing religion on the planet. What do you expect? Of course some people will have their heads chopped off. That happened before with the comics, that happens now with the film.

Burn some more Qurans, and see what happens... Why do you have to deal with them at all? Just let the fire die out by not throwing any more oil into the fire.

Oh hey guys. Everyone perk up. Obama said it was dark blue when it was clearly sky blue. Fox says we should definitely worry ourselves about this. Yaaaaaaawwwwwnnnnnn. Sorry, what were we talking about again?

Welcome to America buddy. Since this is your first day in the country, I am going to explain to you how it has worked for hundreds of years. The government lies dummy. They lie to get us into wars we would never agree to if they didn't lie.

THAT is what is so shocking. The fact that your "babe in the woods" a$$ woke up one day on January 20th 2009 expecting the utmost truth from your government is what shocks me.

But you must be an immigrant if you have such high standards for our government. And I don't mind if you want to make this as a blanket requirement. The problem is that when a Republican is elected, you will go right back to eating a turd sandwich with a smile, no matter what your government tells you. They tell you the sandwich is good and that is enough for you.

The problem with Republicans is an entire lack of credibility of this point. Nobody believes anything they say is anything more than an attempt to tar and feather Obama. And even when they are wrong, they never apologize. And that is the problem with low-life fake Americans such as yourself. Americans like me follow the elected President no matter the party because that is what the majority chose. Fake Americans like yourself don't care about what the majority wants. You just pretend that they don't really know what they want so you can discount their opinion as being less than yours.

We saw you coming before this story even broke. And I am no Nostradamus here, but I am going to bet that the very next time Obama farts and it smells like broccoli and he says he ate pizza, you are going to be there to get to the bottom of it so you can show us all what a big loser we elected. Dream on.

OH, and BTW Republicans who are doing this only because they search for the truth, it turns out Al Quida didn't do this. To have reported that would have been a lie. That's why Petraues said he suggested it might have been AlQuida, not that it was AlQueida. The Libian group Ansar al-Sharia did it and that's where the retribution should be directied.. After all, we don't want to attack the wrong country and start a war just becasue we don't understand the different groups.

For the Chicken Noodle Newsers whining about Security Budgets not realizing the State Dept said that budgeting was not the reason they refused the requests for additional security: search YouTube for "Why our Country is Going Down The Drain"... priceless

All Democrats who are gloating over Obama re-election and thinks this is just a right wing conspiracy to get back on Obama;

Ambassador Stevenson really did ask for additional security and security during Benghazi trip. Hillary admitted to this.
For some reason, from someone in Obama administration denied increased security, but nobody can tell you who did that.
When Ambassador Stevenson was hunted down by terrorists, rescue deployment was requested and US knew he was in fatal danger, but no-one came to rescue for 7 hours. US military and CIA has man power and own transportations to get anywhere on our planet if we really want to be there. Why did Obama administration did not want to be there?
Why would Obama say that it was anti-islam-video demonstrators that spontaneously killed US ambassador? And don't follow up with correct information untill FOX news reports it.

This isn't about Democrats versus Republican.
America needs to know what happened, why we failed, and how we can do better in the future.
Obama needs to make his own people accountable and keep our government transparent.

Democrats need to question Obama like they did with Bush if Democrats want to be credible.
Democrats need to demand transparency from all president not just Republican president.
This is a United States of America, we may have differences but until winners show credibility, truth, transparency and respect we will not be united.

Since this is a scandal allegedly becuase people have been playing fast and loose with the facts:

The attack was not carried out by AlQuieds. It was done by Ansar al-Sharia which is Libyan group.

In its budget request for FY 2013, the Administration requested significantly more funding for embassy security—mostly through the Overseas Contingency Operations budget. That budget, even if approved in its entirety, would have entered into effect after the events in Libya.

There's the facts. Maybe it's time for the Republicans need to tell the truth and not continue to perpetrate these lies to the Ameerican people. They're trying to coverup the real facts. Hmm, lies and coverup. Republicans. We need a special independent commission to investigate these lies and coverup by the Republicans.

It is not a conspiracy. It is just sour grapes. It is just that Republicans are greatly concerned lately with minute things in relation to our past. He didn't launch into a useless trillion dollar war.

There is a credibility gap. People notice over time when you are just looking for minute garbage. When you have hearings based on the assertion that Obama let guns go into Mexico, so he could impose gun control, you are way out on the conspiracy fringe. And then, as soon as Fortune Magazine exposed what REALLY happened, we never heard another word about it. You know why? Because now it didn't serve the narrative. They don't care that a few agents were shot and it was BECAUSE of lax gun laws that basically tied the agents hands. The guns weren't "allowed" to walk. The agents couldn't do anything about it. How come those hearings stopped and Daryl Issa isn't appalled by the lax gun laws that allowed these agents to be killed? How come they paraded out the dead agent's picture and acted like it was the most important thing on Earth until it no longer fit the narrative. Hearings over. Turns out the dead guy isn't that important after all if he cannot be used to embarrass Obama.

And lets look at that whole charade. Why wouldn't Issa call the agents involved if he really wanted to get to the bottom of what happened? What did he proceed to tear apart the administration based on what they didn't know. That has the become the Republican tactic:

1. Start asserting the very worst about the administration before ANY facts are known
2. Create possible theories based on right-wing blog reports
3. Call people to the hearings that you want to "tar and feather" and not the people involved in the actual operations. If nothing else, this can only vindicate the administration, and the goal is to carry out conspiracy theory narratives as long as possible, while claiming to want "the truth." And having no truth, you are merely stuck with all these possible conspiracy theories.

If you think these are searches for the truth, you are delusional. We have been playing this game since the mid-90s. I think we are on to you. And I don't care how much you try to make it seem like I am heartless and don't care about four dead people because that is a silly straw man as everyone cares about four dead people. The reality is, in the scope of things, and how much we were lied to by Bush and Cheney, this is small potatoes. Shout it from a rooftop if you want to. If there are still people that want to come check on the boy that cries wolf every night, go ahead. The rest of us just know it isn't even worth checking.

Let us all show humble appreciation and acceptance of the POTUS " tender public gifts of mercy" bestowed upon all God-loving New Americans - and enjoy his promised everlasting peace and security - the prosperity for all New Americans who ever lived in Libya. God Bless New America

This guy is the reason more and more Republicans call themselves "Independents" every day. Just to get away from being lumped in with this guy.

November 18, 2012 at 6:27 pm |

REDFIREBALL

President Obama never promised "extra tax-paid goodies" before re-election - so MSNBC would have no issue with the House GOP negotiating spending cuts - the decrease of Democrat "investments" made during the past four yeras for the God-loving American electorate - BEFORE increase in tax "revenue" is placed on the table.

MSNBC Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes all know and realize that the CLASSIFIED Benghazi video is just a silly cartoon that demands world-wide honor of President Obama and all his administration.

Both sides of Congress can readily agree: the classified benghazi video is nothing more than a silly funny cartoon - nothing could exemplify and showcase President Obama's rightousness more. Yes, all now agree that POTUS deserves immortal honor by the whole world.

MSNBC RACHEL MADDOW - in her UNTYPICAL incere manner agrees: "The long lines of Democrat voters throughout the nation were NEVER used - nor did they purposely intend - to supress Republican "truth." Election reform is not necessary since the God-loving honest Democrats retained Executive Power from Heaven Thrones.

This isn't a real controversy at all. It's a publicity stunt by a defeated GOP desperate to change the subject and block the progress the American people deserve. It's exactly the kind of "psychological operation" the CIA uses to damage enemy governments– and thus it's an act of war. It's time the American people get cooperation from political officials– not sabotage of our political system. As Bill Clinton said, for democracy to work you need good will– in his words, you need cooperation. The GOP's endless attempts to block the workings of democracy are nothing less than a subversion and, in essence, a permanent enemy attack within. Well, we can't afford more years of wasted opportunities. We must face the truth: we have a criminal class - bankrolled by oligarchs– undermining the country. We don't need more words: we needs arrests. McCain, Graham, Issa, Roger Ailes, Karl Rove- in prison FOR LIFE!!! Nobody in history has done more damage to our nation. Nobody deserves more severe punishment than they. As George W. Bush said on September 12, 2001, "The terrorists cannot shake the foundation of our republic.' That's true– but the GOP IS DOING EXACTLY THAT. IT"S TREASON!

LOL, you sound like you just got out of asylum.
When Democrat wins White House, free speech is gone, and elected officials should be arrested? Is this the new progress Liberal DEMOCRATS want? Wow, our education system is really falling apart. Arresting people for political opposition is democratic now. Is this what you want when Republican president gets elected? although Republicans don't get that juvenile.

The real criminals here are Fox News and the GOP, who have waged a continuous war against democracy in the U.S. They did it in the '90s, distracting the country with the Monica Lewinsky scandal (and wasting $50 million of our money doing it) while Bin Landen was attacking our embassies in Africa. They did it in Obama's first term with the Tea Party– trying to stop the change the American people voted for. And now they're taking a human tragedy– the loss of an American hero on an incredibly dangerous assignment– and trying to somehow rewrite an ugly terrorist attack in North Africa as a political scandal at home. Well, in the history of foreign policy and national security secrecy, this must be the most unlikely "scandal" ever foisted on the American people. The only real danger to American democracy comes from the people at home who are trying to make it break: the GOP. The worst terrorists in the world are the ones who can actually destroy the system. Jail the GOP revolutionaries as the traitors they are! Life in prison for John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Darryl Issa, and Karl Rove!

My fellow republicans should stop persecuting "Honest Obama" and the silly Benghazi witch hunt. Nothing wrong here. The democrats are right. Obama has won the hearts and minds of fearless good righteous America. We Republicans are vindictive demons from hell trying to ruin our robust nation. We republicans should bow our heads in shame and eat dirt. We are not worthy of walking on the same ground as POTUS and all members of his administration. We have seen the "light" and feel grateful that the majority of hard-working and God-loving Americans helped show us "the way to justice over politics." God Bless New America.

you are so pathetic. Americans died here and you are playing politics like Obama. if Obama is a more man than Nixon he should come clean and ask for forgiveness of American people. Then Obama may have opportunity to govern for next four years. I hope he doesn't do Clinton 2.0

November 17, 2012 at 6:01 am |

mariner I

You forgot to mention that Nixon resigned so that he wouldn't be impeached. Then he was exonerated and given a pardon and never got so much as a penalty for his crimes. That isn't justice but it exemplifies everything that is wrong with the Republican Party. In this instance they have tried to hang a tragic event on the wrong person purely to exploit it for political purposes. Not because it is the right thing to do but to use it as leverage for other political purposes. As such it illustrates once again what a bunch of lowlifes occupy the GOP. Where was the outrage when Valery Plame was outed as a CIA operative by Bush&Company and then how long did it take to get an investigation in place to address the issues there? The Libyan Embassy debacle doesn't even rise to the level or warrant the attention it has received. The GOP states that they are outraged that 4 Americans were killed there but there is no outrage for the 47,000 people that die every year because they don't have access to healthcare here in the US. This event illustrates the hypocrisy of the Republican Party in high gear and at it's worst. It also illustrates that the GOP has no sense of proportion in effectively dealing with issues in a rational fashion. In other words the Republican Party and it's members illustrate by their approach to just about everything that not only are they out of touch with reality but that they offer no solutions to solve problems that are worth of our support. McCain as a leader in the Republican Party comes off as an angry, irrational and bitter man who has more than an axe to grind. He was out making accusations of corruption and being denied information at the same time that he didn't show up for a meeting to be briefed about all of the relevant issues. Then when being asked about it, he wouldn't talk to the press because he realized that he got caught with his pants down. Bottom line, he wasn't prepared and didn't know what he was talking about exactly the charges that he was directing towards Susan Rice. He is a complete fraud and should retire because at this point in the game he comes across as just another buffoon for the GOP. We want leaders that are patriotic and willing to work at solving our problems, not grand standing and perpeptuating armwrestling matches ad infinitum. Either contribute towards moving the country forward or get out. Enough of all of these attempts to turn events like Benghazi into nothing more than opportunities to win political points to leverage political agendas. We the people are sick and tired of you wasting public time and resources on BS. Why do you think Romney lost the election and I can guarantee it, if you don't get your act together, the next round you will lose the house, and you should because all the GOP is doing there is preventing the country from moving forward.

Are you serious? Are you saying ousting Valerie from CIA is worse than letting your Ambassador and 3 other American die in foreign soil even when they requested security protection?
FYI, Valerie was ousted by Cheney & companies and Bush wasn't a micro-manager like Obama.

Why didn't Obama & company provide security protection? It's not difficult. Even if it was denied for political reason, when the shooting starts, US didn't have any assets in that region to deploy help? what happened to all airplanes and high tech military equipments that Obama lectured Romney during debate? were they not anywhere near them so we had no one there for 7 hours? Is this logical? our military could not defend our ambassador from armed terrorists?
Then claim there were spontaneous anti-islam-video protesters? This is worse than Bush's WMD debacle. Bush was fed wrong information but Obama knew and mis-informed public. Why? I am sure it wasn't political ;)

You are concerned with 47,000 people dying? I sure would like to help too. But how will we finance it? It can't be like Greece or Italy. Otherwise, we can have 470,000 dying each year. It needs to be SUSTAINABLE.

McCain or not, anyone who mis-informed America about Benghazi is not qualified for any public office. 4 people dead, this IS worse than Watergate!
Long reaches of dark evil in this administration has denied ambassador's security request, denied deployment of on-going armed assassination, mis-informed America days before election, and there is no transparency in this administration. Where does buck stop in this administration. Hillary seems to take all the bucks for Democrats. She did it for Bill and now for Barrack.

Moving forward is not the issue, it's the direction that is important. You need to go to right direction and forward. Not Greece or Italy, or Spain or .... All these countries borrowed from other countries without a sustainable economic plan.
Do you want to move forward in that direction?

November 17, 2012 at 7:34 am |

mb2010a

The comparison to Watergate is an absurd assumption and totally political by the Republicans. The Watergate scandal was an illegal operation on Nixon and the RNC's part...The Benghazi attack was in no way political. This is all nonsense and will reflect very badly on the Republican Party in 2014 and 2016.

Conclusion:
Republicans have less blind faith in their political leaders. You can say Republicans are more intelligent and fair.
Democrats have no honor and has no capacity to think critically.

November 17, 2012 at 7:05 am |

REDFIREBALL

CNN MANAGEMENT: Gut feeling - what congress saw and heard from Gen Petaeus - both democrats and republicans - probably STILL has all of them puking and crying - no sleeping righ now - POTUS should not have any clue - MSNBC Chris Matthews ranted and raved for details from Schiff - Chris hayes belows out nonsense intellectualizations - obnoxious Rachel Madden laughs - and the rest of American (except maybe a few hypersensitive ones like myself) do not know - have no clue. Sad huh? God Bless America :(

Really, what is wrong with you. Why do you even bother. Make your life so much more simplistic please. If you would only concentrate on what our president tells us and block out the rest then you will be well informed. You see he is the president and he took an oath to tell the truth. I do not understand why everyone just would follow this simple logic. Maybe if President Obama had his own radio show where we could get all our information then everything else would go away

lol, just believe president. and were you the one that just believed Bush? or were you the one who moved to Canada then came back?

November 17, 2012 at 6:03 am |

Just a Guy

You guys on the right still don't get it do you? You are trying to crucify Obama over one incident and you want to ignore all the other positives that are going on. And what you really don't get is that the rest of us are sick of it. Were mistakes made in Libya, yes they were. Just like the mistakes made when your hero Ronald Rayguns let 250 marines get blown up in Lebanon and then turned tail and pulled troops out weeks later. Stuff happens. Learn the lesson of the last election and shut the F up already. You are no Patriot. You're a clueless angry white guy with an axe to grind and that is all that you are and you don't have anything meaningful to add to the discussion so just be quite.

how many positive does it take to kill you or your family? tell that to dead American families.
Obama positives:
1. the day he won re-election stock market went down. 2nd worse day of the year.
2. Obama care that steals from Medi-Care and discourages small business from hiring. AND passed congress in the closed middle of night session.
3. obstructs Surge in Iraq when Bush proposed it, then takes credit as the one who brought back our soldiers thru victory in Iraq.
4. cash for clinkers or something that helped foreign car manufacturers more than US auto makers.
5. Sandy death toll is higher than Katrina, but he gets re-elected anyway ???
just to name a few positives...

November 17, 2012 at 6:10 am |

Sandra

You do know, don't you, that it is really difficult to understand, much less take you seriously, whatever you say, when you repeatedly misspell the names of the people you are purporting to talk about? In addition, it really becomes tiresome to read over and over again conspiracy rants that have little to do with the truth.

Yes, it is very sad that 4 Americans died in Benghazi. However, they knew they were being deployed into an unstable part of the world, and accepted the dangerous postings. In addition, while rioting was occurring in Egypt, it was quite plausible that additional rioting could take place for the same reasons in multiple locations, whether spontaneous or organized.

What baffles me is the fact that anyone thinks the American people need to know everything happening in the world, all the time, even before the dust has settled, and any facts become unclassified. The CIA keeps many things secret, always has, and always will, to keep information from "the wrong hands." If Senators and members of Congress choose not to attend meetings in which they will receive the information they need and have requested, such as John McCain chose to do, then that is solely the responsibility of the declining party.

Some information is classified, and privileged, for a reason. Until such information is declassified, it is not ours to know. It has always been that way.

MSNBC CHRIS MATTHEWS- classified video tapes DO NOT show a consulate attacked for "hours" while four Americans were gang raped and torured - before killed and dragged out of the burning buildings - the bloody handprints on the walls and blood on toilet seats in DECLASSIFIED PHOTOS can be ignored - President Obama was never shown anything that should lead him to believe anything of the sort - Gog Bless America!

All Americans should feel fortunate and blessed to have a man with strong leadership skills and record of successful economic plans - a man with impecable fiscal management and governing skills - a man who will fearlessly cut bck expenditures while accepting increases in tax revenue - a man who made honest and forthright "investments" to assure we all trusted him for a second term as POTUS - the Hon. Pres. Barack Obama!

MSNBC CHRIS MATTHEWS -See now? There was no "cover up" fool. President Obama Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice are ALL in the clear. Thet are the MOST honest and upright citizens in the United States. Chris Matthews should continue to pay holy homage to them before he gets a heart attack. President Obama never tried to buy votes with tax-paid "free stuff" - President Obama is HIGHLY-COMPETENT fiscal manager. His record in job creation is nothing short of stellar. The economy will soon BOOM TO GREATEST HEIGHTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY because of President Obama fiscal plan. Therefore, Pores. Obama will not mind the Republican cuts in expenditures, and in certain new investments added during the campaign, as we increase revenue. As Chris Matthews knows, tearing down Gov. Romney - jeering at him - mkes the POTUS SHINE EVEN MORE (wink)

"The economy will soon BOOM TO GREATEST HEIGHTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY because of President Obama fiscal plan"

Hummmmmm, I hope you are right. But try telling that to the 79,000 people in Ohio and Penn State thta have just filled for unemplyment.
And dont forget the poor union people that work for Twinkie that they will now be jobless too.(Of course that is their own stupid fault)
The DOW is down almost 1,000 pints since your hero was reelected. Companies are running for cover, cutting full time workers hours down to part time because they cant afford the insurance payments that are being forced upon them.
The list goes on and on but you just keep believing everything that you hear come out of Obamas mouth and you will be just fine. Yup, sounds like you have been around a while a know what you are talking about.
God Bless

As a republican ans supporter of Gov. Romney, even I can assure there was NO Benghazi "cover up." There are questions left unanswered but so far everyone is in the clear -nothing reported to Congress so far left cause to doubt tthe INTEGRITY of President Obama and Susan Rice. So relax, MSNBC Chris Matthews, President Obama is the MOST CHRISTIAN MAN to hold the POTUS Office –even ALL Republicans know and now see it more than ever.

Mr. Jackson, Here is a classic case of main stream media not making news available when it is discovered. Right after this attack the white house received correspondence from a group affiliated with al queda claiming responsibility for the attack. I believe that came out while your eyes were glazed over with thoughts of obama being re-elected. Now I know the first grade weekly reader probably does not carry those stories and I know you probably like playing the connect the dots games and reading the riddles but this really did happen. It really did come from the white house to that this happened. But you can keep believing that they are on the run because Obama tells you they are.

Can you believe these republicans, I for one totally agree with you. I think they will continue this for 4 years. If he does get anything labeled on him and is forced out of office I am not giving my obama phone back either. They gave it to me and I am keeping it. I don't think they are going to be happy until we are all back to work either and I am quite content where I am so why do they want to rock the boat. If my benefits get messed up it will only prove they really do not understand what this united states is all about

November 17, 2012 at 5:00 am |

ObamaIsWorseThanBush

Dustin, how old are you? You should be at least high school reading comprehension to discern politician's lies. Petraeus is a human that made a mistake, and he resigned. Obama is a man, no male that has no honor and no intelligence. He lies then he tries to cover up then truth comes out so he will try to drown out truth with anything but Benghazi.
Gaza, global warming, fiscal cliff, Iran, North korea, who knows...

Important thing is citizens deserve their leader. As long as we have people who blindly follows Obama kool-aid then us sane Americans suffers with the liars, fools and our country.

November 17, 2012 at 6:28 am |

mb2010a

Your guy and your party lost...get over it. There is no cover up and the only "guilty party" would be the Republicans and the Republican controlled House...

paula broadwell said the cia was taking prisoners and keeping them in a secret prison inside the consulate in benghazi, and that the attack was an attempt to free the prisoners. why not more questions about that? if true it would be an outrageous abuse of authority for a diplomatic facility and would totally explain the attack. we know there is already a secret prison at bagram AFB in afghanistan keeping more prisoners than there ever were at guantanamo. when will the people wake up and demand that their government obery the law? the violations of law by both bush and obama are putting all our lives in jeopardy!

So im confused, is our Youtube video racist bigotry the reason or not Ansar al-Sharia (formerly known as AL-Qaeda) sacked our embassy and gang r@ped, tortured and murdered our ambassador for an entire day while our State department watched and yet held tightly to the leashes of several agencies that were past the point of merely 'watching' or not?

Cause if its my fault for watching a youtube video then im truely sorry and feel guilty... or somthing...

Here's a thought... Why the heck would we not know what was going on? If I was there, I could probably tell you if the attack was a bunch of demonstrators who got out of hand or if it was a military style attack. It had to be obvious it was a terrorist attack. They were hit with friggin mortars!!! It's all political b.s. The CIA probably was holding prisoners at their annex, just like the General's hoochie said. There you have it. The general and the president need to cover up the fact that prisoners are there, which is illegal. Also, it would be bad for the election to have a terrorist attack on 9/11. I just can't believe how bad they were at covering it up. Don't they specialize in that stuff? I think the real concern is that our CIA is incompetent. They can't stop a terrorist attack and they can't keep an affair secret?

where was bush during sept 11?. what did he did with all the information from cia fbi and kgb russia? Nothing. thousands of americans lost their live in american soil. what a shame to republicans. instead of bumbing saudi arabia he wasted more than 4 thousands americans in irag including trillions of dollars that brought america economy down.
John mccain should reveal the names of americans solders still languishinh in vietnam since after the amican war with vietnam. they are treated like slave in vietnam thick forests, farming rice for vitnamies. all the letters the poor americans are secretry sending to the senate is with mccain. ask him to produce the letters your relation could there.

What this world needs more of is people jumping to conclusions about the deaths of Americans in foreign countries! There's absolutely NO WAY people were bringing up real people's death as a way to score political points in election season.

I'm also sure all the people offended about Benghazi were screaming about the 9/11 warnings and, more importantly, the lack of WMDs in Iraq which lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths, not just 4.

You demo’s don’t get it, it does not matter who committed the attack, It does not matter what Bush did or any other administration before. The fact is there was no protest and the video proves that, The real story is the Big O administration tried to cover up the truth because they did not want a black eye for America getting attacked on Sep 11th during Big O's watch right before the election. And you can forget about a paper trail to Big O is not stupid, Plausible deniability.

It really is quite simple isn't it. Dems can never, ever admit when something isn't right in their party. This is all some crazy right wing conspiracy right? Any criticism of their Demi-God is chalked up as racism. Any criticism of a black female ambassador is racial and gender bias. They will label anyone who disagrees.

George W and Condoleeza Rice got there Intel from inside Iraq from an Iraqi Engineer and other's from Iraq ( Spies ) That is information that is passed on from word of mouth, letter's etc. Yes there was information that contradicted this information. They dissect said information and make a calculated decision. In hind site, Yes GWB was wrong to invade Iraq! ( Get over blaming GWB for all the ills of the world) In Benghazi the info was seen LIVE via CIA drone planes, E-mail ( live time) Phone calls (live time) There is a world of difference between Iraq & Benghazi, Iraq -word of mouth- Benghazi-watching live video-reading real time E-mails and live phone calls!!! America you have been Played the Fool!!!! ps: The President lied (Al-Qaeda is Dead ) to get reelected.Well played Mr. President!!!

November 17, 2012 at 12:33 am |

Dustin Goldsen

You have to throw your back out trying to spin these two events as Republican success and Democratic failure. Republicans are clearly up to something, the only question is what.

One theory, they want John Kerry out of the Senate to give Scott Brown another shot at the other Massachusetts seat. They have to get rid of Susan Rice with this trumped up nonsense for him to get the nomination. Another theory, they just want a scandal, any scandal, to disrupt the President.

November 17, 2012 at 12:57 am |

Dennis

Here's a thought... Why the heck would we not know what was going on? If I was there, I could probably tell you if the attack was a bunch of demonstrators who got out of hand or if it was a military style attack. It had to be obvious it was a terrorist attack. They were hit with friggin mortars!!! It's all political b.s. The CIA probably was holding prisoners at their annex, just like the General's hoochie said. There you have it. The general and the president need to cover up the fact that prisoners are there, which is illegal. Also, it would be bad for the election to have a terrorist attack on 9/11. I just can't believe how bad they were at covering it up. Don't they specialize in that stuff? I think the real concern is that our CIA is incompetent. They can't stop a terrorist attack and they can't keep an affair secret?

November 17, 2012 at 1:32 am |

Dustin Goldsen

Well don't forget, the last budget the House came up with has a cut of $300 million for defense of foreign embassies. Talk about giant steps in the wrong direction.

It is almost sure that the process of the II War in Iraq will be examined, from the reasons that brought America to declare war to the tortures perpetrated against the Iraqi prisoners.
As known, at the Hague, Netherlands, the International Criminal Court wants to officially launch prosecutions against Tony Blair and G. W. Bush. So far, it has launched prosecutions only in Africa, including in Sudan, Congo, Libya and Ivory Coast. Good luck.

Your desperation is showing. You people will go to any lengths to concoct a scandal involving the president. You tried to blame him for Fast & Furious and you failed. The right has accused the president of all kinds of things – being born in Kenya, trying to indoctrinate schoolchildren, trying to drive stock prices down, trying to take your guns, and on and on – all of it wholly without merit. After awhile, even right-leaning Americans start to get it: you people are nuts.

A Coptic Christian *pretending* to be an Israeli Jew tricked actors into making a video he dubbed over to intentionally cause a religious conflict. He was successful causing riots in several cities. The riot in Bengazi began in response to his video. Al Qaeda in Libya had been planning a September 11th attack. They took advantage of the riots to attack the Consulate safe-house. QRF Marines in Spain launched and secured the scene in 24 hours. Unfortunately, that was too late for the Ambassador and the other three.

AFAICT, the entire argument seems to be Monday Morning Quarterbacks ranting what they think should have been done differently .

Is there any other angle in this story why the administration suppress the facts, is any body wants the Ambassador to be dead, who instructed he should be in benghazi while he should be at Tripoli, Is there any financial interest acted in the distribution of money for various counter insurgencies in that country involved and try to divert into vested interested peoples, Is the Ambassador acted against it............. Why the administration watch the attack in the real time , is it to make sure every thing end in a calculated way.......God knows.

Nice revelation, confusion arise out of 20 or such reports from different parts, BUT THEY ARE WATCHING DIRECTLY IN BENGHAZI IN REAL TIME THERE IS NO DEMONSTRATION, HOW COME THEY THINK AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE STUPID. Its easy to make people stupid so as the election result. But there is almighty is there whoever involved in the blood of these 4 innocent people will get their punishment from god no matter what.

Must have dropped the meds and is babbling while scrambling all over the floor picking them up.

November 17, 2012 at 1:23 am |

Michael

The talking points contreversy does reveal to us that the President lied when he said Susan Rice was speaking from the best intelligence available at the time. The fact that no one in the intelligence community is talking the fall for Obama is probably why he was so combative in the presser. We do need the truth thats all, the Ambassadors death was not covered up, but tring to control the narrative of these attacks much like classifying Fort Hood as work place violence, is disturbingly deceptive.

Well explained, Michael ! I simply don't understand why media outlets, including CNN, continue to defend the misguided narrative. I just watched AC and couldn't believe how hard he worked to defend the nattaitive presented by our government. I would have expected a premier media outlet to question the discrepancies that are obviously incredible.

And you will never understand as long as the facts do not fit into your anti-Obama (read anti-American) preconceived fantasies. You do understand the difference between classified (the actors were affiliated with Al Qada) and the less specific unclassified talkng points (the actors were extremists.)? Not to mention that at the early stages of ANY investigation, jumping to any conclusions before all the facts are determined is in a word "stupid". But then again, as Bobby Jindal said recently, the Republicans are the "stupid party". This article clearly lays out exaclty what happend and why it happened in terms of the talking points. But silly me thinking that what is really important is what happened on 9/11 in Bengazi is what is really important, not silly semantical arguments over different versions of talking points.

" The first draft of the CIA unclassified talking points stated there were indications the attack was linked to al Qaeda, but during the interagency process when the talking points were reviewed, al Qaeda was changed to extremists. The official said the change “was not a political decision.”

"The points were not, as has been insinuated by some, edited to minimize the role of extremists, diminish terrorist affiliations, or play down that this was an attack. There were legitimate intelligence and legal issues to consider, as is almost always the case when explaining classified assessments publicly." the official explained. "First, the information about individuals linked to al-Qaeda was derived from classified sources. Second, when links were so tenuous—as they still are—it makes sense to be cautious before pointing fingers so you don’t set off a chain of circular and self-reinforcing assumptions. Third, it is important to be careful not to prejudice a criminal investigation in its early stages.”

The official said the controversy over the word "terrorist" caught the intelligence community by "surprise."

“Most people understand that saying “extremists” were involved in a direct assault on the mission isn’t shying away from the idea of terrorist involvement," the official said. "People assumed that it was apparent in this context that extremists who attack US facilities and kill Americans are, by definition, terrorists. Because of the various elements involved in the attack, the term extremist was meant to capture the range of participants."

The talking points, the senior U.S. official explained, "were a reflection of the understanding at the time that could be provided at an unclassified level. They were preliminary and were never meant to be the final word on the issue."

November 17, 2012 at 12:09 am |

Tory

Michael and Clark are right on the money. And even this article goes to great lengths to skirt the facts. Hopefully President Obama will address the issue directly and tell the American public what he knew and when he knew it. So far all we have heard from him is that there is an ongoing investigation and he cannot talk about it.

So why blame Susan Rice? She was merely reading the talking points given to her. I think McCain has outdone himself in his OUTRAGEOUS" display against Susan Rice. Instead of benig interviwed by newspaper journalists, he should have been inside the briefing by General Patres. And considering the hot water Patreas is in by not keeping his zipper zipped, I am not sure I would trust what he says in a briefing. Yeah, I know he was "under oath," but he also was "under oath" to keep his marriage vows. You can't trust anything he says, especially if he thinks it will sae his skin.

We still do not know with certainty whether the extremists were al queda members. It's merely remains the current best guess. Let's not make the same mistake twice and assume that the information we currently have is accurate and not subject to change - otherwise we will need to open another investigation as to why we were wrong about assuming it was al Queda, when we discover it was a local militia.

So, they had a drone overhead, and real time footage. The motivation or the actual group behind the attack was not immediately known. But it was an attack, with intelligence streaming in as it was happening.

Where was the support for the American citizens there? I think this is the larger issue, a failure in leadership. Were assets in the area to support our citizens under attack in a foreign nation? It seems that the answer is yes. Why weren't they used? What happened? It must have been tough, sitting in a room watching these people die from streaming drone footage and make the conscious decision nothing was to be done about it. I hope the people responsible for that failure have trouble sleeping at night.

all I want to say on this subject is... I hear these politicians and news puppets saying over and over again "people don't show up to protests with guns and rockets" when in fact doing exactly that these people managed to over throw Moammar Gadhafi...

ADub said: "I think this is the larger issue, a failure in leadership."

No, the larger issue is dwindling US/NATO influence in the region. We lost the Iraq war. We lost the war in Afghanistan. The US is a paper tiger which lacks the wherewithall to maintain its hegemeny in the region. Face it, the Libyan government told us to take a hike, and we're helpless to do anything about it.

The armchair generals don't like that, and if they were still in control I have no doubt the troops would already have been dispatched to Libya. We would be staring Vietnam IV in the face. The neocons, if given the chance, will completely destroy America in their quixotic quest for world hegemony.

In hindsight there was nothing the Obama administration could have done to save any lives at Benghazi. There was not enough time to adequately asses conflicting intelligence reports and deploy boots on the ground in time to save lives. There was a missed opportunity to beef up defenses in Benghazi prior to the 9/11 date which may have been a big mistake but will now certainly be a lesson learned. All this talk by political people to the media about what was said or written by the POTUS or CIA or Rice, etc., is nothing but politics and reflects poorly on our nation. Let the congressional investigation determine the truth. Quit feeding the media for political gain.

You should read a bit closer. Multiple sources were at hand and ready to go to save those US citizens. That is the whole magella. The question is why didn't they go over the top and while the answer has not been explicitely proven, the guess is that the only source that would have the authority to OK/decline such an operation is the white house. DH, don't struggle so hard to carry the Presidents water; it diminishes your credibility.

Well stated. How can anyone defend the indefensible? With the overall proof of incompetence mounting, one would have to bury their head in the sand to not see a very high level cover-up.

November 16, 2012 at 11:07 pm |

Robrob

"Multiple sources were at hand and ready to go to save those US citizens. "

Seven hours and a continent away. Real life is not a video game or an episode of 24.

November 16, 2012 at 11:15 pm |

Jerry Kinch

Robrob...There were Nato troops in Iraq...No call for Help.Cia drone planes with missiles protecting Oil Platforms...No call for Help. Calls for Help from those Brave ex Seals and no one even tried to send Help!!! Mr. President send the Help and if gets there to late we will understand But for Gods sake send the Help!!!!

November 17, 2012 at 12:54 am |

riightospeak

It seemes like the whole much-ado-about-nothing misses the main point. Who was responsible for the security of the killed Americans in Bangazi ? If not the military, then CIA. Ambassies are protected normally by Marine Corps, but in this case CIA was in charge. Attack or no attack there was negligence, unless it was planned by the CIA to get rid of the individuals. Who was in charge of the CIA there ? Maybe he is not talking, because orders came from above like in JFK assasination. If you believe that Oswald killed JFK, then you are naive enough to believe this story of infidelity, girlfriends, bad FBI agents.

Blue Mountain is the company that sent unarmed, untrained security gaurds in.

They have an affiliation with an organization called The Eclipse Group, which has been described as a "private CIA group." It is run by a guy named Duanne Clarridge, a former Iran Contra figure with ties to another guy named Cofer Black, Mitt Romney's National Security Advisor.

Oh, so now it is Mitt's fault, and he wasn't even in public office. You O apologists are hilarious. Dangerously naive and incompetent (just like O), but hilarious.

November 16, 2012 at 9:53 pm |

I_L

@ Brian, I guess you need to start out with something a little more basic. Start by reading a little bit about what Google is, and then move on from there.

November 16, 2012 at 11:38 pm |

Bill

The CIA is not responsible for embassies, the State Department is. And this embassy had requested numerous times extra protection, only to be turned down. Part of the problem with our nation is that we want to cover up for "our" party whether they're right or wrong. We're supposed to be Americans first, not party members first.

You obviously have absolutely no idea of the primary mission of Marine security guards at our embassy. Their primary duty is to protect the facility and the classified material in the facilty. The host country is responsible for the protection of the embassy an the embassy personal.

Also, here something for you to think about (assuming you're inclined to thinking): Assuming the U.S. could have broght to bear U.S. military resources on the crowd that included terrorists outside of the Bengazi consulate and dropped a weapon on the crowd sending them into the next world. What do you think would have been the reaction in Egypt where hundreds of Islamic (call them terrorists if you wish) were protesting outside of embassy their when they heard that we killed scores of Lybians? Do you think they would have dispersed? Or do you think they would have overrun our embassy in Egypt threating the lives of our personel in Egypt? There would have been a hell of a lot more than 4 American deaths. Hey, but what do you care. You really do not care that 4 Americans died in Bengazi. Your agenda is solely to carve out some political benefit out of a tragic event.

The administration pushed the idea of a video which was seen by 342 people at the time of the attack as being the spark. No mention of the anniversary of 9/11 which it occurred on, no talk of armed terrorists over running an under guarded embassy (us embassy in france had heightened security for the annivesary of 9-11 but not necessary in the muslim nation of libya). If we believed what susan rice said and the president- we would still think a youtube video which is blocked in the middle east bc its western media caused 4 americans to be murdered, especially after they asked for the security detail to remain but was denied. Month later they were killed

See what you are trying to do with words to try and downplay the severity here marsilius. Consulates are smaller versions of embassys. Embassys differ bc they hold ambassadors not just consul. Ambassador Stevens asked for the security detail, which was already in place, to remain there. It had been allowed to stay prior to that, why not extend it when the anniversary of 9-11 is a month away. Especially when ambassador stevens asked multiple times but was denied

November 17, 2012 at 8:02 am |

Brian

Uh, no, more like 2 to 3 weeks of solid campaigning worth of lies. It didn't fit O's agenda, having trouble from al Qaida right before the election. Thanks to his lapdogs in the media, he was able to get away with his lack in integrity. Those who have half a brain know the real score in spite if the media and you throngs of manipulated cretins who support O and the Dems.

That's odd, I didn't have that problem. I had a pretty good idea what had happened.

November 16, 2012 at 11:36 pm |

Rachael

This a made up controversy. The CIA shouldn't be disclosing all the facts as a situation like this unfolds in the first place and there is little difference between terrorists and extremists. Nothing is being covered up. All of you conspiracy people are nuts. The GOP is just making up problems to get attention and make Obama look bad. Its pathetic and should be ignored.

Listen this is what needs to happen to keep people honest. We need one party to watch dog the other or god knows what the world would become. It could be the Rep investigating the Dems or the other way around but it needs to happen. Im not sure what happened here but it seems like somethings not right. Lets find out, why is everyone so upset that an investigation is happening. Im sure the family of those who died are not upset. Let the truth be told and then we can have the appropriate action taken if any action needs to be taken. Its not about the Lord Obama or the foolish republicans its about honesty and integrity and the value of human life. Im glad these hounds are sniffing and if the shoe was on the other food I sure hope Harry Reid would have his nose up some repub butt.

Mr.Jackson, what on earth are you talking about. Can you please get your head out of the politics of that stupid video, and focus on the issue at hand? Your president (and mine) appears to have been horribly involved in something that should have been easy to defend, but didn't and then put up a smoke screen to save the election. An uninterested foreigner would look at it that way. I know... I live among them. It looks very bad for Obama's role at first glance. I supposed Nixon at first. Then I woke up and faced the inevitable: my president, the one I had campaigned for, against that "dangerous Democrat", was a vicious crook. Will you be honest enough with yourself to accept that about Obama if it's true? Can you put your self-interest aside long enough to let those who actually know something here decide?

November 16, 2012 at 9:39 pm |

Paul

That was supposed to say "I supported Nixon..." - mistyped.

November 16, 2012 at 9:40 pm |

For the Emperor

No, the video was NOT done by republicans. It was done by someone from the Middle-east, who bankrolled several actors to perform in disjointed recordings so that they didn't know what they were making – or so they say, when they say "I am muham and I am gay" you think they would get the idea of what was happening. The guy was already arrested.

November 16, 2012 at 10:20 pm |

neutral observer

Enough,
You have it all mixed up. It is the "free press" that is supposed to keep tabs on government as a whole. For the last 8 years the majority of the news outlets have been serving as democrat dna recepticle and that is why everything is going down the drain.

I wish that was the case I really do but sadly you are correct. We cant count on the media because everyone has an agenda. If the free press had its way this would have died along with our fellow Americans. I hope that a good explanation comes out but it seems less likely as time goes on. I don't want to think that our elected officials would be so uncaring of those who put themselves in harms way for the better good of all of us. The truth has a way of coming out and at least people are talking about this more now. Lets try and reserve judgment until we know exactly what happened.

November 16, 2012 at 10:26 pm |

Jerry Kinch

Well said.The main street media should be Embarrassed with themselves. Report the news, investigate, report the facts!!! But please stop the Cheer leading!!!

November 17, 2012 at 1:06 am |

Alina77

Republicans have another "conspiracy theory", that they have to feet themselves with... The election is over , losers.>>>

Are you glued to MSNBC, check out the facts at CSpan before running your mouth. If the shoe was on the other foot you would be screaming impeachment. Whether you want to admit it or not, the troops were told to stand down, thank God 2 seals disobeyed tht order and saved countless lives, but then again they weren't your sons let's stick up for the guy in the White House, he is the one we should be worried about, nothing else matter. Don't worry he has got the media protecting him they will make sure he will come up smelling like a rose.

yeah... wah wah wah impeachment! instead of jobs bills we will waste money on a LABEL... that gets nothing done...
the GOP went from the part of NO, to the party of WAH... and that change was 100% Obamas fault...
wah wah we lost with mittens

November 16, 2012 at 9:30 pm |

I_L

Actually, I don't recall anyone calling for George W. Bush's impeachment after he allowed the biggest terrorist attack in this nation's history to occur. The country was actually pretty solidly behind him and OUR efforts to find the people responsible.

There were definitely some calls for impeachment over some of his actions in the years following the attack.

November 16, 2012 at 9:30 pm |

DownSouth

Really, Martin, the GOP's quest for a scandal has reached desperate proportions.

Where is Sarah Palin when we need her? At least when she was around Americans had more important things to talk about, like her hairdo and wardrobe.

The word "Al-Qaeda" was used by the intelligence agencies. They can't do that if there wasn't factual evidence of that. They used it because they had evidence to prove it. Brave people did their jobs to get that evidence so policy makes could make good policy.

Changing it to extremist is changing the meaning in a legal sense. It's a lie. Somewhere between the factual reporting of the intelligence agencies, the State Dept and/or White house chose to politicise the event and re-wrote what happened injecting false information like "extremist" and "not a preplanned...", "People gathered outside the embassy", " spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired in Cairo as a consequence of the video"

Politicising the deaths of 4 Americans is one thing. Covering up an incompetent handling of the crisis is statement on leadership and integrity.

Aren't you forgetting a central point that emerged from today's investigation? They didn't immediately mention al queda-linked groups to protect a source. This whole time I've been unable to understand Republican's stubborn insistence on all material being made public when it's clear classfied information in involved. That makes it look like the Republican wish to destroy Obama is blinding them to larger issues of national security.

I don't believe the White House lied. However, it would have been better to give no information until giving a more complete story was viable.

Dick Morris was wrong on the election polls. And libs are wrong on the Benghazi cover-up.
The Giants really did win the Super Bowl. The Heat won the NBA Finals.
Romney really was behind. And the Obama admin really did deceive the American public.
Sean Hannity is conservative. And 4 Americans died in Libya because the administration did not want to offend Muslims in Libya by having a visible security force.
Romney lost the election. The US did nothing when the consulate and safe house were attacked all night because Obama did not want to offend the Libyan government.
Karl Rove wasted a lot of money. Obama flew out to a campaign event in Vegas while the consulate was still smoldering. And the media didn't cover it...because, well, the media is thoroughly biased.
These things are true whether Right or Left wingers wish to admit them.

4 dead Americans are 'dirt' to you sir? Shame on your playing politics over the lives of these Americans.

November 16, 2012 at 8:53 pm |

Kevin Lenihan

I just want the truth to come out. Do you? I think we know the answer.

November 16, 2012 at 8:57 pm |

I_L

@aoh3

You're making yourself look/sound SO pathetically desperate right now, please get a hold of yourself man.

November 16, 2012 at 9:17 pm |

I_L

How can anyone say there was a cover-up when we all knew and know what happened? You're all freaked out because you THINK there was an ATTEMPTED cover-up for what, half a day?

November 16, 2012 at 9:19 pm |

ddawqg75

Absolute Hypocricy is alive and well. The same republicans who are so outraged over the death of 4 Americans said absolutely nothing about Bush and Condoleeza Rice's incompetence and invisible WMD's that ledl to the Invasion of Iraq and the death of 4000 Americans. McCain and Graham are a joke. If they spend $1 of my tax money investigating this I'll file a lawsuit against them myself.

Actually they did have security in Libya, but not in Benghazi. They beefed up security in Tripoli because that's were most of the violence had been occurring. Although Stevens had concerns about his level of security, Benghazi wasn't seeing as much violence as other areas. Plus the budget for the State Department was cut drastically the last couple years and part of this budget includes security for foreign diplomats and embassies.

Our ambassador and three other Americans were killed and the attack was classified!! What kind of BS is that? How dare you take us for idiots! This is the same BS talks that happens in Cuba and other banana republics!!!!

If our intelligence agencies need some short-term secrecy to not tip off our enemies as to what they know, and to protect the sources aiding our cause, I'm OK with that. That's way more important than ensuring that you and I, watching the news in our easy chairs, unempowered to do squat about the tragedy, have immediate access to the real story.

That would be true except nothing was done in this instance for any of the things you list and we still have 4 dead Americans.

November 16, 2012 at 8:55 pm |

ddawqg75

Again, we have 4000 dead troops in Iraq. Where is your outrage for their families?

November 16, 2012 at 10:38 pm |

bspurloc

yeah cuz when CIA agents die... what they were doing should be immediately told to foxfax...
5000+ dead because of yellow cake.... 60,000+ wounded that the gop doesnt want to pay healthcare for...
2 wars paid fo with tax cuts and 3 stimulus checks... but this is news...

Let's back up a second folks... what DIFFERENCE does it make whether the embassy was stormed by crazy Muslim extremists angered over a video or crazy Muslim extremists angered over western values? If Al Qaeda was or was not responsible for this attack, does it change our assessment of them as terrorists? This is a distinction without a difference, and underscores the absurdity of this GOP witch hunt.

Whether Rice had the right or wrong information at the time changes nothing about our response, our policies, or the degree of the tragedy. On the other hand, we paid dearly in blood and treasure for the misguided and misrepresented information about WMD in Iraq, and we're supposed to just say "oh well" and move on....

Well said! The GOP hasn't learned that the younger generation doesn't think like the old white guys that still vote for them. They see the GOP as a bunch of whiners who are out to destroy anyone who doesn't think as they. And in four years they will be, once again, scratching their grey heads wondering why they couldn't carry the younger generation.

Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.

John Stuart Mill 1866

November 16, 2012 at 9:38 pm |

JamesFoley

Good job J0e when you don't have an actual argument to stand on, call others stupid. Seems to me you're too uneducated to know the difference between smarter than you and the word stupid. The votes Obama has locked down are the votes that he gained from people, young and old, black white and all others, that took the time to do actual independent research instead of blindly taking the word of Fox talking heads calling themselves independents and then leading them down the republican prim rose path to wilful ignorance.

November 16, 2012 at 9:59 pm |

ddawqg75

You don't get it and never will, but your name calling is what the country is sick of. I don't agree with you so you call me stupid. You had a candidate that couldn't relate to the middle class and you lost. Get over it.

November 16, 2012 at 10:44 pm |

Mr.Jackson

You assume that jihadis are the attackers.

Look up Gaddafi Loyalists. They are NOT jihadis, yet they carried out attacks on diplomatic and intelligence targets for months before the Sep 11 attack. They have a motive to blame the attack on Islamists: they HATE them.

They carried out bombings and assassinations IN BENGHAZI right before they hit the CIA.

the difference here is... the gop has been trying for 4 years to blame someone on obama.. they thought they had their golden bear and foxfax failed to make anyone care cuz we all know if fox says its so, it isnt.

The election is over! McCain, Romney and the Republican Party are nothing more than sore losers. It's time for all of them to get back to the job at hand and quit looking for something that isn't there to complain about. How many millions of $ did the American people have to pay for special investigations when they were on a witch hunt to get President Clinton–and I don't mean about Monica. Remember all the investigations that didn't find anything with real estate deals and the death of a close friend Republicans just knew Clinton was quilty of, etc.?

Hey guess what? The election *is* over. That means the guy commenting, Peter King, was *elected*. And it turns out that the guy in the White House, also elected, was *lying* to you and me about Benghazi.

What exactly does the President have to gain by lying or covering up anything in Benghazi? He won the election by 3.3 million votes and an electoral college landslide. Deal with it.

November 16, 2012 at 10:48 pm |

aoh3

Oh! For a minute there I thought you were going to fess up about Monica, but you didn't want to talk about that... Sorry. But Bill is okay about saying a man who lies shouldn't be president... I wonder if that alarmed our current POTUS?

socerraus20
Is there any other angle in this story why the administration suppress the facts, is any body wants the Ambassador to be dead, who instructed he should be in benghazi while he should be at Tripoli, Is there any financial interest acted in the distribution of money for various counter insurgencies in that country involved and try to divert into vested interested peoples, Is the Ambassador acted against it............. Why the administration watch the attack in the real time , is it to make sure every thing end in a calculated way.......God knows.

Nice revelation, confusion arise out of 20 or such reports from different parts, BUT THEY ARE WATCHING DIRECTLY IN BENGHAZI IN REAL TIME THERE IS NO DEMONSTRATION, HOW COME THEY THINK AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE STUPID. Its easy to make people stupid so as the election result. But there is almighty is there whoever involved in the blood of these 4 innocent people will get their punishment from god no matter what.

So, tell me how SIX news organizations confirmed that there was a protest by independently interviewing different eyewitnesses?

Those security guys who "saw nothing unusual" are either lying or they just weren't there to see a protest when it was taking place.

I'll believe the onsite video backs up the "no protest" story when I see it myself. So far, ONLY Republicans have said the onsite video shows there was no protest. The CIA doesn't say that. The State Dept doesn't say that. The FBI doesn't say that. And no Democrats who have seen the video are saying that.

Yes, thanks to intel gathered under Bush/Cheney policies. O will be doing no such good for his successor. What an incompetent oaf.

November 16, 2012 at 9:41 pm |

Mr.Jackson

There is a good reason that the Administration did not, and still has not, claimed that the attack was carried out by AL QUEDA terrorists.
The reason is that there was a series of terrorist attacks by Gaddafi Loyalists in the months leading up to the attack. Gaddafi Loyalists specifically threatened to attack diplomatic targets months before the attack on the US Post.
LOOK IT UP. It is in the public domain. A Gaddafi Loyalist cell was arrested for a bombing, IN BENGHAZI, just three weeks before the attack on the US Post. They assassinated a Libyan Intel Chief, IN BENGHAZI just a week before they attacked the CIA. Those are just TWO of the attacks!

It is the REPUBLICANS who had (and have) a politically motivated reason for insisting that al queda carried out the attack. Somebody should ask Peter King what evidence he has seen that al queda carried out the attack. THERE ISN'T ANY. Weeks ago, LA Times reported that there hadn't been any evidence uncovered that tied al queda to the attack.

Our dead embassy ambassador's sister recently came on CNN and proclaimed that her brother was completely aware of the existent danger in Benghazi and had no complaints, at all, about what had been done to provide security....She went out of her way to compliment HIlary Clinton, and stated that her brother had the utmost respect for everything she had done...............................no complaint whatsoever about Obama's actions......................

It is a shameful thing, to put politics before your brother's life. What an azzclown. OF COURSE they could have done much more to protect our people there. Who the heil do you think you are dealing with here? Manipulable children? That would be Dem voters. Have at them... You won't get any actual thinking adults to see it that way, though.

I am a big fan of CNN precisely because it challenges both sides. I was hooked in 2008 and am still a fan. That's why its editorial approach to the Benghazi attack is so puzzling. Throughout it appears obvious that it has bought the theory that the administration is spinning the affair and goes out of its way to present this slant in its coverage. Erin Burnett has been the cheerleader in chief for this narrative, but does it with a certain panache. Tom Forman is less adroit. He started the hour with, "Petreus told congress today that he knew almost immediately that the attack was the work of Al Quaeda, BUT THEN THE STORY CHANGED. In the last segment he said to the Democratic congressman being interviewed that we know for a fact that it was a planned attack in relation to 9/11. When the congressman took exception to this and reported that today's hearing did not confirm this, Forman looked as enthusiastic as Karl Rove did when he finally realized that Ohio had gone blue. I expect bias from FOX and MSNBC, but CNN claims to be different. On this story, I don't think so.

Amazing – liberals think that only their opinions matter or are factual. The reality is only Fox news has challenged the President, versus the tough questions asked by the CNN reporters "Mr. President can you tell us what your favorite color is? Do you like puppies? Do you like riding in Air Force One? What matters is that you re-elected a person who in his own words said he should not be re-elected if he did not improve the economy and lower unemployment. But if it helps you sleep at night,you can beleive whatever you like.

November 16, 2012 at 8:26 pm |

John

Gallup now has Obama's approval rating at 52% and disapproval at 42%.....they also have the unemployment rate at 7.4%, rather than the BLS 7.9%...............on the other hand it has the GOP not increasing in approval but going the other way........................my theory....the idiocy of this focus on whether Obama said extremist or terrorist..........if the GOP does not start to address REAL ISSUES they will become a dinosaur sooner, rather than later.

gallup also had romney winning the election. I am tired of these two parties getting away with telling lies to us – they are OUR employees. Obama has done it many times, and will do it many more times – what I don't get are these posts acting like it's ok – but hey, I guess it is ok for some of you – you re-elected this nightmare.

They are not LIES just because Faux News and the haters who post here call them that. Don't get overly impressed with your biases.

November 16, 2012 at 8:16 pm |

BillSD33

These are not YOUR employees. In fact, you are not even a stakeholder as Romney saw you. You are a citizen, right to be concerned, but wrong to take your dislike of the president to these extremes.

November 16, 2012 at 8:47 pm |

Tim

I am a GOP'er. If my guy pulled this crap, I would never cover for him, I would admittedly support the investigation against them. To imply that this is smear campaign is moronic considering that there is proof that the consulate was attacked prior to this, and presented evidence of a dangerous increase in al Qaeda training camps near the consulate. There were requests for increased security that were denied prior to 09/11. When the consulate was attacked on 09/11 there are unconfirmed reports that annex agents were told twice to stand down while they listened to their friends being killed. Finally, breaking orders, the two agents drove in to fight to defend the consulate. The agents were able to fend off some attackers and return to the annex with the remaining survivors. Woods took position on the roof and painted the location of the attackers for hours while he repeatedly called for air strikes that never came. After a couple of hours of woods making himself a target with the laser in plain view of the enemy, no air support was ever ordered. The idiot al qeada finally figured out how to aim the mortar and they killed woods. Once the administration learned the ambasito rand military heroes died because someone in the administration ordered that no assistance be rendered they conspired together to concoct the theatrical diversion of the video, even going so far as to interject bizarre diatribes about dangerous Americans that offend innocent muslems with evil videos wherever they could. This is a treasonous betrayal by spinleless administration that is culpable. They still have taken no responsibly for letting our people die and blaming the attack on Americans.

Why did Obama change the CIA report and add the lie about a youtube video? Why did he continue to lie for two weeks about the same video? Why did Obama repeat that lie before the whole world at the United Nations? Why did Candy Crowley defend those lies before the nation at the second debate? Some serious questions that this administration doesn't want us to know the answers.

There is not one shred of EVIDENCE presented that the President changed ANYTHING, just unsourced speculation created out of nothing. So the answer to the Why questions is that it didn't happen–ceetainly Petraeus didn't say that is what happened.

The Democrat Party are the true and most honest defenders of America. There is no evidence to suggest otherwise. Suan Rice is in the clear now. If congress has anymore supefluous questions, they will get them answered. There was no cover up. I am republican, and join Chris Matthews of MSNBC by chanting: "God Bless America!"

November 17, 2012 at 3:28 am |

rossko

he lied so he could get re-elected and now it doens't matter – his supporters don't care about the truth, they don't care about the 4 men who were slaughtered, and they don't want to believe anything that paints their mesiah in a bad light. He's just like Romney, though; he was running a campaign and an alqueda attack makes it hard to pretend like he won the war for us by allowing the seals to kill bin-lauden. I think it's funny when people think one party will lie and the other one won't – so sheep like.

You don't give a rats a$$ about those four dead men. You just want a scalp to hang on your wall.

November 16, 2012 at 8:11 pm |

Jesterx212

Don't pretend for a second that conserves or pubs give SQUAT about those Americans that were killed anymore than you accuse dems of not caring. You're ONLY interest in Benghazi is that you think it's something you can hang on Obama. You're a bunch of fakes.

You don't know me, my son in law is serving in Afghanistan and yes I do care about those that died because the administration is so reluctant to use the word terrorism. So don't you try to put me in one of your little categories, I could give a rats ass what you think all I know is 4 people are dead, 2 disobeyed orders to stand down, and Patraeus is being thrown under the bus, he saved countless of lives put his own life at risk, got wounded and now all the libs can think about is protecting the man at the helm. I remember Obama saying he is Commander and Chief take responsibility for your actions. Patraeus warned them weeks ago this was coming it was not a spontaneous moment.

November 16, 2012 at 9:01 pm |

ohgran

This isn't the first time Americans have been killed. But it's the first time we have witnessed such outrage by the Republican Party. How about the the lives there were lost under their watch? 4000+ for a start!

November 16, 2012 at 8:31 pm |

BobinCO

Postman, you have hit the nail on the head. These GOP loons will do anything at this point–ANYTHING–to scare up controversy, even if it means aiding the enemy.

November 16, 2012 at 10:22 pm |

Hillcrester

Isn't is clear that Amb. Rice's presentations were full and accurate in reflecting the information she was given, regardless of how accurate/inaccurate or complete/inconplete that information was? It is a separate issue as to whether/why the process of developing what she was told was competent or not, politically motivated or not, necessary to protect sources or not.

McCain abd Graham's attacks in Amb. Rice are unwarranted and call into quwstion both the judgment and the fairness of both Senators.

On on end, Patreous delivered to the civilian leaders an assessment that pointed at organized terrorists as the executors of the assault and murder.

At the other end, we have Amb Rice divulging a lie. She may or may not have know that it was a lie. At the UN, Obama delivered a message that perpetuated the lie.

Somewhere in the middle, someone changed the story; any investigation would have to forward track from Patreous and backtrack from Amb. Rice to get to the point where the lie developed.

It isn't about racism because Amb Rice is black or an attack on women because Amb Rice is a woman. It is simply a government official spreading a lie to obfuscate the serious issue of 4 Americans killed on an assault to a diplomatic compound.

I find it extremely disingenuous that CNN appears to be more concerned about Senator McCain's whereabouts than the whereabouts of our President while Americans were being fired upon and ultimately killed in Libya.

As do the majority of comments on this article... There are 4 dead Americans and the Commander in Chief was failing to answer that phone call Hillary Clinton failed to make herself; but then again, she is in Australia...

The war that is coming when the makers get tired of you liberal takers. We are coming for you. :-)

November 16, 2012 at 7:54 pm |

Hillcrester

The delusional one when 25 landlocked states secede!

November 16, 2012 at 8:06 pm |

nathanielwade

Yes, which war are you referring to? The needless war in Iraq? The all-too-long war in Afghanistan? Or are you talking about your partisan war with the POTUS on some "talking points"?

You hateful right wingers sat idly by as 4489 Americans were killed in Iraq and cheered on the unjust war and now you want to CREATE a controversy surrounding the deaths of 4 Americans? When exactly did you start caring about the lives of our military? You certainly did not care while they lied to us about WMD's and instead called all of us "hippies" that opposed the needless deaths of our bravest in Iraq.

I'm sure you're a brave man Nathaniel. Perhaps you should walk awhile in a serviceman's boots before you try and lecture about what is unjust while you suck in free air provided by others. Were you ever in Kurdish lands when Saddam gassed his own people? Define "just" or "unjust" much?

November 16, 2012 at 8:42 pm |

nathanielwade

Typical idiotic puppet using talking points straight from Fox News. Are you stupid? Do you think that only Republicans have jobs? Are you dense enough to believe that every coworker you have is a Republican? You are not coming for anyone. You are going to sit there on your outdated PC and continue to be a keyboard coward. Coming up with nothing of substance but to literally parrot this stupid and outright immature takers and makers line. Just because something rhymes does not mean it is true.

Jennifer Rubin at Wapo/blogs/RightTurn is reporting that the president's classified briefing contained the information about the Al Qaeda affiliates but that unclassified talking points given to Rice did not. I posted the following at Ms. Rubin's blog:

"Oh My Gosh! So, Obama sent Rice out to the Sunday shows with unclassified information that was missing crucial information. As a result, perhaps, Rice made statements that denied what was stated in Obama's classified version of that information. In effect, Obama was the one who removed the line about terrorists from Rice's talking points. Oh my gosh! Rice is going to be seriously angry when she learns about this."

Seriously, I think that Rice was made the messenger as a means of allowing the administration both to give a sanguine report to the nation and to have deniability in case the report blew back on them.

Bingo Theo. The big picture for me is the fact that the Democrats voted God out of their platform 3 times, gay marriage in, abortion on demand, and birth control funded by money stolen by the government from Churches. The moderator overrode the vote, and put it back in. Obama won the electoral college by a large margin. Ayn Rand once said that if you can determine to predominate philosophy of a nation, you can predict it's future. My prediction involves Guns, Gold, and Generators. I'm praying for my nation, but prepping for Russia circa 1917.

Because the guy is a racist, anti-muslim bigot, and he has his whole little fiefdom in America of other racist, anti-muslim bigots. As Martin Luther King put it, folks like him "gain prominence and power by the dissemination of false ideas, and by deliberately appealing to the deepest hate responses in the human mind."

Indiscriminate violence against innocent people like with the IRA? No problem when your entire base is built on hate.

Here we go with the race card, libs answer to any question they don't have the answer to. I thought Democrats said it is Patriotic to question the president, I guess that only applies to liberals. So let me see if I got this right. If a Arican American questions a white president then that is racists right?

You have no clue who I voted for, I don't vote straight party, I actually take the time to gather information from more than one news source to decide. What does that have to do with anything, I grew up in a housing project in the slums of Detroit and you want to call me a racist, your a joke. I don't vote by the color of their skin, I would have loved to see Condi Rice or Colin Powell as President. Then again I didn't vote for Obama to prove I wasn't predjudiced, like so many libs did.

November 16, 2012 at 8:18 pm |

John

Surpised that you are calling Obama anti-miuslim (against muslims) rather than pro-muslim.......sure you don't want to revise your racist comments?

It is the equivalent of dragging a dollar through a trailer park–except instead of attracting hobags, it is pulling all of the loons out in to the light so we can see them. This is good. We need to see them, hear them and remember why these hate-filled, unpatriotic, two-faced whiny-babies were justifiably denied power on November 6.

If I read reports correctly, the Red Cross had left earlier–meaning that even the CIA had pulled up stakes. Who knows what was really happening day to day and what the true purpose the Consulate location was serving. The details of what was going on and who our folks are investigating didn't need and don't need to be broadcast for our enemies to savor.

You screaming mimis here seem to be the same ones who kept your mouths quietly wrapped around President Bush's dck during the whole Iraq invasion. You have have no room to say a word here. Not. A. Word.

I suggest you go looking for the next excuse to try and embarrass our black, democratic and democratically-elected PRESIDENT BARAK OBAMA. Scream big. You will push the electorate even further away.

Your kind has just been handed your tails so that you may tuck them between your legs, and people like you do not like having your tails handed to you. The anger is eating you alive. We can read it. We saw it in 2008 when you started dragging your pop guns to rallies and started talking about civil war and succession. You want to punch something, kill something, make us HURT worse than you are hurting. Oh we get you, alright, and you are part of the reason that America is fast showing you the curb.

November 16, 2012 at 7:31 pm |

littlelizard

Paul, you're an idiot. Was that supposed to scare someone? Every time people like you open thier mouths and spout that kind of nonsense you reinforce the idea that forced sterilization may not be a bad idea in some cases, I sure hope you don't plan on breeding any time soon and passing along your stupid gene.

November 16, 2012 at 9:12 pm |

J0e Truth

Except Biden and Hillary voted for the Iraq war and Senator Obama was too chicken to show up and vote yes or no. He stayed home. Kinda like what seems to be the case here.... not there.

Truth I think you posted to the wrong thread. If not, then what in the heck are you yammering about?

November 16, 2012 at 7:39 pm |

William

The reason for two parties in opposition, just as democrats questioned Bush, Republicans have the same duty to question this administration. It helps get us a bit closer to the truth. But, honestly, politics is a chess match and part of this may simply to do with other debates elsewhere giving and takig cover. As far as McCain, I wish those who seek to cast doubt concerning this man by calling him a racist and one who thinks little of women (ask his daughter if you don't fear for your life) I wish had been side by side with him when he was a prisoner of war. Oh, I forget, he spent time in that hell hole with daily beatings for those people who now seek to kill his character. That's leadership that will get to the truth...LOL

If the books are correct, McCain wouldn't have been in prison if he hadn't been hot-dogging and crashed a plane.

November 16, 2012 at 7:46 pm |

Hillcrester

His inability to fly a plane–it was at least his second crash–doesn't make McCain a hero, it makes him a washout who was kept only becuse dad and grandad had been Admirals–the classic legacy (~affirmative action) recipient.

November 16, 2012 at 8:10 pm |

Terry

BobinCO I would bet you dont know which end of a gun to hold let alone know how to shoot one.

Terry you'd be wrong. My S&W 636+ has one extra chamber. Do you know why?

November 16, 2012 at 7:49 pm |

nathanielwade

Right-wingers are really the stupidest people alive. How stupid could you be to think only Republicans have guns? I just wish you would show up to my US Steel plant. I would make you eat your words you feckless puppet.

November 16, 2012 at 8:31 pm |

jimenj

From the article: "First, the information about individuals linked to al-Qaeda was derived from classified sources."
So they knew Al-Qaeda was involved, instead they blame the useful idiot producer; what purpose did that serve?
"Second, when links were so tenuous—as they still are—it makes sense to be cautious before pointing fingers so you don’t set off a chain of circular and self-reinforcing assumptions."
So Obama points the finger at the useful idiot producer...makes less sense! Unless he is attempting a cover-up of course. In which case, his goal was to suppress the AlQaeda link all together.
"Third, it is important to be careful not to prejudice a criminal investigation in its early stages.”
By blaming the muslim education film, Obama prejudiced the entire Islamic world triggering the riots across the entire world; how many deaths occured after the Obama administration provided FREE publicity to a video that had been watched by 7 people (I mean a very small number) prior to this incident? How many murder charges are there going to be brought up against Obama?

Keep trying to LIE about who financed, made, circulated, advertised and promoted the video.

Keep trying to LIE and say it was Obama, and not the Republican Party.

All those layers of deception and we still managed to peel them all away and expose the Republican Party operatives who deliberatelu incited an uproar across the Middle East.

This is why the GOP is SO hysterical in their denials that the terrorist attack was tied to the video.

November 16, 2012 at 8:41 pm |

John

There was initial feedback of both terrorism and also of the film causing a lot of the protesting.........It turned out that the former was MORE of a direct cause in Benghazi............the question is SO WHAT.............The statement missed, but only by degree, not by the absolute truth............the GOP keeps wondering why everyone is shrugging their shoulders...it is very simple........with our lack of boots on the ground, it would be difficult to immediately determine what happened....i.e. the fog of war..............the GOP is making a mountain out of a molehole, and an absolute fool of themselves.....

Really, so 2 seals are dead because no one sent back up and they decided that they weren't going to stand down and thank God they didn't because there would be more lives lost. They were told to stand down not once but three times. Check out CSpan before running your mouth. Four people are dead if it had been a Republican President you would be screaming impeachment. But that's ok, they weren't your sons, or that wasn't your father whose body was set on fire, yep keep sticking up for the Democratic President.

Funny that libertysPatriot never complained once while 4000 brave AMericans were dying in Iraq when all that was accomplished was converting Iraq's government from Sunni (pro Saudi Arabia) to Shia (pro-Iran)....that is what we got for the 4000 dead, and you would rather complain about the 4 in Benghazi?

What does that have to do with anything, were talking about Benghazi, like I said check into CSpan before running your mouth. Whether you like it or not, just as libs said with Bush the buck stops with the President or now that it's Obama it's everyone elses fault.

November 16, 2012 at 8:12 pm |

J0e Truth

After hundreds of billions of dollars fixing our intelligence agencies and ability to prevent and respond, those mechnaisms worked for the duration of the Bush Presidency. If you read, and you should, you'll find alarming evidence of a state department and administration asleep at the wheel. Evidence that indicates this event was easily prevented but wasn't. Once you educate yourself on the facts of the event John, you ought (not saying your bias will let you) start to see the changing story as an attempt to cover up the mistake. This was not a complicated attack. They knew pretty well it was coming and posted on a public blog the day before questioning if they would live the night. We spent hundreds of billions to prevent this kind of thing. Why didn't it prevent it?

It would be myopic in the extreme to say that the anti-muslim video was the SOLE reason why the Middle East erupted in fury when the REPUBLICAN PARTY put out THEIR anti-muslim video.

There is a long-simmering caldron of resentments, and we can't even solely blame Bush, though he did not help promote peace by systematically kidnapping, illegally detaining, raping and torturing thousands of muslims, and then letting them go. Some of them even witnessed fellow muslims being tortured to death. Bush was trying to create generations of enemies for his war-racketeering friends.

But we can't pin it all on Bush either. Western imperial governments (including the Soviets) propped up brutal dictators who suppressed muslims and systematically radicalized them for two generations.

And we can go back further than that. If that happened to Americans, they would be up in arms too.

King is an idiOt clear and simple. Nothing but a political hack.. no other person at the meeting came out and said the things he did. Looking for the spotlight, trying to spread doubt, and knowing full well that because of the classified information that can't be released, he can say what he wants.

The name Al Qaeda was removed because it would have contradicted the White House story that they had eliminated Al Qaeda. This would have hurt Obama's election story line. The middle east is going to blow and this administration is incompetent on foreign affairs. I feel sorry for the Israeli's. The good news for the WHite House is that the US press corp couldn't care less that an ambassador and 3 americas were killed needlessly.

I knew exactly why Hillary Clinton did not go on 5 talk shows with the "White House" LYING points! PLEASE do not insult my intelligence, Susan Rice. You were played and your reward is Secretary of State nomination. The entire intelligence committee did NOT sign off on it.......it was changed!.

Has anyone bothered to ask, just what the White House had to gain by lying? By saying extremist did the dirty act rather than terrorists? Obama immediately mobilized troops and ships in the region to get closer, and they did.......but how was Obama supposed to know whether a more serious assault would occur in Benghazi rather than Cairo? You can't dispurse troops everywhere when you have multiple protests......Use your brain just a little....Could you have done better? And why aren't we asking why the House cut Obama's Foreign EMbassy Security budget request by 128 million in 2011 and by a whopping 331 million in 2012?

Conservatives aren't whining – we're stating clearly that this was a cover up. YOUR boy has been spinning, misleading and lying all along. They only decide to go ahead with the investigation AFTER the election? THe news media has hushed up about it until AFTER the election? CBS sat on an interview where obama was caught on tape LYING about it until AFTER the election? This president and his story has been smelly from the beginning.

So I can only guess that you think that Obama "wished" these brave AMericans dead......nothing else would be of consequence.....what incentive would he have to intentionally "mis-label" this as extremiists rather than terrorists.....do you GOP wackos realize how stupid you are making yourself look?

John, you don't follow the thought process through. You are either naive or prefer to forgo truth when it hurts. What president running for re-election would like to have a terrorist attack occur on 9/11? Democrat or republican, this predicament would make any politician cringe. Speculating that the attention span of most Americans is short, a diversion for several days would be beneficial. The truth then gets revealed slowly, either by the media or directly by the government. The lurid video was in the spotlight long enough to stay in the minds of most. The propaganda became ubiquitous in the left wing media. At this point in time, no one believes the video to be of any value to the cause of this attack. Of course, most of this comes to light after the election which makes perfect political sense. It's an excellent strategy because now the only individuals curious to learn the truth are Republicans. This, in turn, becomes fodder for the Democrats to show that the right are "sore losers". The effect lessens the overall tragedy; 4 individuals are dead and no one is accountable for the act or for the propaganda. In the end it's disappointing because, if this had occurred during a Republican administration, the same situation would arise from the Democrats. As an Independent, I'm appalled at this entire situation. Are we Americans or do we put our political party affiliation first?

And let's not forget, there "seems to be something fishy" and "no political figure ever stepped down because of an affair" related to the Petraeus situation (i.e., Obama knew about what Petraeus was doing and didnt release that information to the public), the job numbers during he hurricane going up because "nobody gets fired because of a hurricane" and the war starting in the mideast now is because of Obama telling our enemies we are weak. It's almost as though there were some kind of pattern here...

November 16, 2012 at 9:32 pm |

J0e Truth

From today's testimony: "The original talking points were much more specific about Al Qaeda involvement. And yet the final ones just said indications of extremists,"

From the transcript of Ambassador Rice on Sept 16: "The information, the best information and the best assessment we have today is that in fact this was not a preplanned, premeditated attack. That what happened initially was that it was a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired in Cairo as a consequence of the video. People gathered outside the embassy and then it grew very violent and those with extremist ties joined the fray and came with heavy weapons, which unfortunately are quite common in post-revolutionary Libya and that then spun out of control.

But we don't see at this point signs this was a coordinated plan, premeditated attack. Obviously, we will wait for the results of the investigation"

Al-Qaeda was used by the intelligence agencies. They can't do that if there wasn't factual evidence of that. They used it because they had evidence to prove it. Brave people did their jobs to get that evidence so policy makes could make good policy. Changing it to extremist is changing the meaning in a legal sense. It's a lie. Somewhere between the factual reporting of the intelligence agencies, the State Dept and/or White house chose to politicise the event and re-wrote what happened injecting false information like "extremist" and "not a preplanned...", "People gathered outside the embassy", " spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired in Cairo as a consequence of the video"

Well, in part yes. Moreso it seems the differnece between Petraeus discussing the possibility of it being a terrorist attack vs "He had told us that this was a terrorist attack and there were terrorists involved from the start,"

I cannot for the life of me understand what the conservatives are whining about, The information given to Obama and Rice initially was crisscrossed with the terrorist planned attack. Once the information was filtered and cleaned up the President used the corrected data.
Mountain out of a molehill Republicans, Get on with you lives, your little rich boy got the shellacking of the Century,,, get over it!

Because to 2 seals disobeyed orders to stand down, they were denied any back up 3 times, they saved countless lives because they couldn't let those people get slaughtered. I'm sure the families of the dead seals don't think it's a mole hill, either does the Ambassador's family whose body was set on fire.

Did Obama tell them to stand down? Did Obama deny additional help? As the President recently stated they are investigating who did and will get to the bottom of it. Why are all of you wing nuts railing on Obama? Yes, he is over all these people but HE DID NOT CAUSE IT!

Immature stooping to calling names, what ever the fact is yes he did and not only that he watched the whole thing. The whole thing was on CSpan so before you run your mouth check it out. Don't me if that was a Republican president you wouldn't be screaming to high hell. Four people were killed, thank god that the two seals disobeyed or there would have been many more deaths and if those were my sons I would make sure nobody forgot what happened but then again it wasn't your son, so let's stick up for the Democratic President.

November 16, 2012 at 7:05 pm |

Howard

@cj, They are all over Obama because he is a Democrat and a Black man in the Oval Office. This isn't complicated. What amazes me is that everyone has forgotten all of the other assaults on our other embassies that occurred on the very same day. BTW anybody remember what the reasonwas for those attacks. I'm hearing crickets and not answers. This was clearly a case of interagency proof reading and sanitization to protect sources. If Patreaus didn't walk up to the President himself and tell him the information then what ever message Rice got was what she got, period. Now let the commission do its job and find out why and who sanitized the message. BTW, I like how the GOP supporters were this fanatical about the 9/11 commissions findings. I think we heard nothing but crickets on that one too.

November 16, 2012 at 7:26 pm |

Don

CJ – Obama is responsible because as commander in chief he makes the call... Military is on standby until he gives the go ahead.

November 17, 2012 at 11:14 am |

Kathy Smith

Please do not insult my intelligence! I knew on Sept. 12, 2012 what is was. There was no crisscross....it was deliberate lying and manipulation. The White House Lying Points....thanks Valerie Jerrett!!

Wow, you knew what it was before we knew? WHY DIDN'T YOU REPORT THIS TO THE NEWSPAPERS??? You could have saved our country a lot of grief and the CIA a lot of effort...

November 16, 2012 at 9:20 pm |

Brian

AJ (below), do you think it would have done any good? All of the newspapers are in the tank for the Dems. This whole mess, plus the economy that will soon tank with this incompetent President, are all on the heads of the Dems, thier lapdogs in the media, and the voters who are so manipulable that they can't find their azz with both hands.

November 16, 2012 at 9:39 pm |

AJ

He should have gone to Fox News minutes after the event to let them know that he knew without a doubt that it was an terrorist attack by AlQuida. My only question is, does this guy have inherent omniscience or total omniscience? And to all those in Fox News who said a few days later that "It was clear to any 4 year old that it was terrorists, had nothing to do with the tape and that it's obvious Obama was involved in a coverup" – well facts is facts.

November 17, 2012 at 9:40 am |

Mike500

Wrong. Rice, Clinton and Obama kept spinning the video story for 2 weeks; long after it was known to not be true.

The video story was true for most of the middle east protests....it just turned out that the Benghazi attack was pre planned......their was no lying.........both things were happening throughout the middle east on 9/11.

November 16, 2012 at 7:36 pm |

AJ

When was it "known not to be true" and by whom? Just want to better understand the timeline. What evidence are you going by for this?

November 16, 2012 at 9:22 pm |

AJ

I think it's pretty clear what they are going for. With statements like "a second-class burgulary is nothing compared to this" and "we need a Watergate style investgation". They're looking for an opportunity to rewrite history.

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CNN's Security Clearance examines national and global security, terrorism and intelligence, as well as the economic, military, political and diplomatic effects of it around the globe, with contributions from CNN's national security team in Washington and CNN journalists around the world.